Homily of Bishop Fellay
Reverend Fathers,
My dear faithful,
In a memorable sermon, on the occasion of his priestly jubilee, our venerated founder, Archbishop Lefebvre, described the power of the Mass. We are accustomed to call it the sermon of the crusade for the Mass. He described his own experience: how he went to Africa as a missionary to countries, which had never known the true God. He told us how, once the Mass was implanted on these lands, there was a power from the Holy Ghost which not only saved the souls, but which also would little by little build society, made society into a Christian society. We are now living this same experience here. The circumstances are not quite the same; the Mass is not being implanted in a country, which did not know God. It is implanted in a de-christianized country, a country which does no longer want to know God, which is devastated by revolution and by godless people. In this country Christian society is completely decomposed, and the Mass itself has been swept away, transformed, changed to please the world.
In this respect, the same Mass, which transformed Africa, produces the same fruits today. Little by little, the Holy Mass, the Mass of all times, the Catholic Mass continues not only to lead souls to God, to sanctify them, to take them away from sin with an extraordinary efficiency, but at the same time it imposes to the Christian soul the duty to reconstruct the Christian society. Man is a social animal; he is not made to live alone. It belongs to its nature to live in society. Once he is a Christian, a man must quite naturally seek to Christianize the society in which he lives. This is simple, logical, normal. And when we look back on the history of mankind, we see that any society always leaves a place for God. Very often men indeed were wrong about their God, but there always was a place in society for religion.
The State, consequently considers himself as bound to worship God, not as a private person, but precisely as State. The pagans understood that. The Greeks, the Romans before Christ said that a State without God would be committing suicide. And when after a period of combats, conflicts and persecutions, the true religion came to Rome, it managed to convince and to transform the State into a Christian State. But what is revolution up to? Will it try to eradicate religion completely? No, this is not possible! The French Revolution and Communism both tried in vain. The imprint of God in the soul is too deeply seated. So what did they do? They tried to reduce religion to a private matter: to send the Church back into the sacristy. And, for the past two centuries, this idea seems to prevail. It is the secularized State, the State without God, they speak of the neutral State, can you imagine! And thereupon comes a council, Vatican II, which makes this idea its own: the Church must strictly mind her own business, she has no longer anything to say to the State. The State is independent, autonomous with regard to the Church. They call this religious liberty.
There are several aspects to this word “religious liberty”. There is first, liberty of conscience, individual liberty. And there is especially the affirmation that there is a practically radical separation between the State on the one hand, and religion on the other. This idea is still alive and the reigning pope maintains and affirms surprising things in this respect. He tells us that when Vatican II made its own one of the basic principles of the modern State – i.e. the secularized State -, the Church found again her patrimony. In other words, the Church found herself again in harmony with the teaching of Our Lord. This is incredible! Cardinal Ratzinger was already saying as much to Archbishop Lefebvre. And our founder told him: “But, Your Eminence, you cannot write out 1500 years of the history of the Church. The Church always said the contrary.” And the cardinal answered: “That was not a normal state.” So it was not a normal state that the State be subject to the principles, to the commandments of God, to the principles of the Christian, of the Catholic religion!
You can understand, my dear brethren, that we have not reached the end of our combat. Do not think that the crisis is over. Yet, Our Lord taught us a prayer, the prayer of the children of God, the prayer that the children must offer to God who is their Father. The Apostles were asking Him: “Teach us how to pray.” And Our Lord gave us the beautiful prayer of the Our Father. And what do we say in it? “Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” This will of God must be done on earth in the same manner that it is done absolutely in Heaven. May the sweet yoke of Our Lord be really the rule not only of the individuals, but of the society!
I believe I found the reason of this obduracy of the present pope in favor of the secularized State. I get the impression that he considers the issue wrong side out. We say: “The State must submit to God,” and in this sense we speak of a State religion, i.e. the State, the civil organization acknowledges that it owes true worship to the true God, and that consequently it must favor the one true religion. Certainly, the State has its own domain, which is the temporal domain, just as the Church has her own domain, which is the supernatural domain. But these two societies have the same members, and you cannot turn these same members into schizophrenics. There is a final goal for the Christian, for man, which is to go to Heaven. Now, if this is the end, which must direct its whole life, obviously his life in society can only be in harmony with his Christian life. Confronted with this logic, it seems to us that the State must do its utmost in the organization of the city – which is the temporal domain – so that its laws and ordinances favor the way to Heaven. Thus, necessarily, there must be harmony between the State and the Church, and if they are domains which are mixed, i.e. in which both have their say, the Church, God, have the last word with their commandments. The State must absolutely submit to the commandments of God. There it has no right to autonomy or independence. Such has been the constant teaching of the Church.
Now the present pope sees things from the other side. He sees an absolutist State, which wants to use religion as an instrument, and makes of religion its slave. I think that this is his concept of a “State religion”. A Napoleonic State it is true will make use of religion to achieve its own end, just as it is the case today in China with the Patriotic Church which is subjected to the decision of the State. Consequently, to protect, to defend religion against this veritable abuse on the part of the State, it is normal that we fight, – this abuse was seen also under the communist regime in Russia. But then, instead of coming back to the true principles, the pope tries to solve the problem with the help of modern philosophy, and taking a modern attitude. Instead of affirming the principles we have just recalled, he affirms the principles of the individual, he makes liberty of conscience supreme. Nobody can be prevented from confessing his religion. This is true and this is false. It is true in the private domain, in the secret of the soul, but as soon as we deal with the organization of society it is no longer true. False religions do not have the right to have their public organization. This leads to chaos because if you apply this principle literally, as soon as you have two Muslims, you must give them permission to have four wives each. This destroys society, it is only obvious.
We have really the impression that we do not manage to turn the Roman authorities, the official Church away from this new concept, which has something right at its basis: the desire to free the Church from the excessive yoke of the State. But they take the wrong means, and do exactly the opposite of what they should. Thus Rome gives its placet, its agreement to the demolition of the Christian State! And the pope, it is said, is now trying to give a greater liberty to the Mass, the effects of which we have just described. Assuredly this is an absolutely contradictory situation! So let us first ask from Heaven that the pope make this courageous act of giving liberty for the Mass, but let us ask as a second grace that he may understand the complete lack of logic in desiring a good for the Christian soul and even to a certain extent a Christian society, while depriving himself of a Christian State. As I told you, the crisis of the Church has not yet come to an end.
Yesterday, we spoke about the Mass1, let me come back to the subject and insist. If, in the coming months, some liberty and even full liberty were granted to the Old Mass – as rumor has it and as it seems to be happening –, let us not think that it is all over. There may be a trap there. I would call it the “sirens of Bordeaux”. “All is well, it is perfect; we have the exclusive right to the Old Mass. My dear brethren, at the same time, in the very same month in which they gave the exclusive right to the Old Mass to a new institute in Bordeaux, when the Society of St Peter complained to Rome of its misfortunes with their most important Mass centers in France being taken away from them, Rome answered: “See about it with the bishops.” At the very same time! And if this was not sufficient, we know an abbey in Southern France, which in the last century was very friendly to us. The new abbot declares insistently that the new Mass must be celebrated from time to time to show that they are in communion with the pope. This causes some unrest in the abbey, because some of the Fathers would like to keep more of Tradition, they would rather keep the Old Mass and not think about opening the doors to the New Mass. The unrest is such that once more they called upon Rome. A Monsignor came from Rome quite recently and he did something quite interesting: he scolded the religious who were resisting the New Mass. They must, said he, accept the New Mass. And it is the very same Monsignor who co-signed the decree of foundation of the Institute of Bordeaux which grants an exclusive right to the Old Mass. That is what you call logics! Is this consistent?
And so, my dear brethren, today’s Rome on the one hand grants the traditional Mass or seems to grant it… up to an exclusive right, and on the other hand insists that the New Mass be celebrated! The Rome which is ready to grant this Mass which by itself will naturally recreate this Christian society which you are trying to reconstitute here! This Journée de Tradition is like a day when you see the little blades of grass shooting forth again after the storm. It is the re-creation of a Christian terrain with a multitude of associations which show the social aspect of Christianity. As I told you, this flows forth from the Mass. And this same Rome which on the one had seems to be willing to grant us the reconstruction of the Christian society, on the other hand peremptorily states that it is by abandoning it that we are in harmony with the Gospel and recover the patrimony of the Church. Everything is upside down, my dear brethren.
It is obvious that in such a state of affairs we must abstain. It is not the time to make a mad rush forward. No! If the Mass is granted, it is a victory. Let us hail it as a victory. But it is not the end of the war, this latter goes on. I bless Divine Providence who, each time that something is done which could give us some misgivings, some doubts as to whether now is the time, and should we take a step forward, at the very same time Providence permits that some other events occur which throw the light we need and show us the obvious path to follow. For years now we have been discussing with Rome, and we have often experienced this. This shows us how much God is with us, and if you will permit me to use this image, after the fashion He was with the Hebrews when they left Egypt to go into the desert. He was a cloud during the day and a column of fire in the night to guide this poor people in the desert. The desert was no fun. But He was there, and supported them.
The introit for today begins with these words: “Salus populi ego sum, dicit Dominus. I am the salvation of the people.” This word “salvation” can have several meanings. When we speak of salvation nowadays, of course we think about being saved. But it also has the meaning of “health”. God gives coherence, life, strength not only to each soul but to the Christian people. God is with his people. He accompanies it and does not forsake it. We must never forget this. If someone seeks God, if someone wants to please God, God will never forget him. No matter what may be the circumstances in which we find ourselves, no matter what may be the trials, the soul who desires God and is ready to pay the price will find God. And God will be its salvation. So let us take the truth of this sentence as if it were meant for us. Once again, our war has not come to an end. How much longer will it last? I know not. And to carry on we need courage. This courage we will find it in God and in the means He gives us.
To conclude, I remind you that at the end of this month we have the intention of addressing to the Holy Father, pope Benedict XVI, a spiritual bouquet of rosaries. The rosaries prayed for him so that Heaven may give him the strength to do what he now seems willing to do: give the Mass back to the whole Church, with no shackle, no unkindness, no limits, no condition. And while we pray directly for this intention for the pope, we also pray for the Social Kingship of Our Lord. There is no contradiction, both are intimately linked together. And lastly, since Heaven itself told us in Fatima that the Kingship of Our Lord would come through another triumph, that of His Holy Mother, we pray for the triumph of the Immaculate Virgin.
Consequently, during these last days of the month of October, I invite you, my dear brethren, to pray some extra rosaries so that our bouquet be beautiful, full and overflowing to the point of making an impression on Rome! Why not? We must show, and this pleases God, that we are ready to pay the price. We must show to God that we truly appreciate His gifts; that we recognize that they are great, and that we are asking Him for something great. It is no little thing that we are asking for. So we must pay the price.
This proof we give it to God, but obviously we give it also to men. This is why during these last days, I invite you to pray, to double your prayers – why not?– to do still a little more: some extra rosaries for these great intentions, for the good of the Church, of our families, of the whole society which we desire to be Christian. Amen!
1 During the conference given, on Saturday October 14, in Villepreux. Some excerpts are available on DICI website.
